In the Pursuit of Passion

I believe with all my heart that what we are passionate about is part of our purpose - part of what God made us to do.

When you are passionate about something and you learn, practice and make that passion part of your life - whether it in making a living or even just as a hobby.

The ideal, however, is to turn your gifts (which really aren't these the same as your passions?) into a means  to earn your livelihood.  You will be doing the work God made you to do and in the process be blessing people through the outer display of living your passion (your excitement and energy becomes contagious).

When school systems track  students towards an education or training in order to fill the jobs, in most cases the passions will not be filled - gifts will not be nurtured and developed.

We live in the northeast kingdom of Vermont and there are big changes afoot, I mean really big changes.  So close to our home, a mountain is being developed into a giant four season fun park megaplex, the closest small city is going to be newly developed with a large resort and an entire city block is going to be torn down and replaced with fancy buildings.  An international bio-tech firm is going to be formed.  All these changes, the public is told, will create thousands of jobs. 

In an area with the highest unemployment rate in the state wouldn't this be welcome?  Shouldn't area people be rolling out the red carpet? Most are.

I say no.  For one thing, the source of this influx of money is through the EB-5 immigration program - tens of millions of dollars - spent by wealthy foreigners buying their way into our country. (While the poor illegal working on a neighbor's farm must stay in hiding.) 

But, most frightening to me is one aspect of the response to all of these new jobs.   The local public high school has been meeting with the developers to formulate new training and job tracks which will take place at the public schools in order to "train" the children to support the pockets of few. 

While most of the jobs being created are low paying service jobs, I am sure there will be some higher paying positions in management and some specialty fields.   However, why are people convinced that money is the bottom line?   Why are our public schools ignoring passion - ignoring our children's gifts?   When passions are ignored the individual does not become the person God intended, and in turn, tens, perhaps hundreds, even thousands of others lose out on appreciating and learning from that one individual.  Perhaps that student was the next Edison or another Monet?  Or maybe another local farmer providing quality food for the local population. 

I am passionate about life, about living, and about becoming.  One of the reasons we home educate is to be able to nurture our children's gifts - to help them realize their passions.   I plan to share more about each of them in the coming posts.